Live data from Hacker News

Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

wsj.com

61–70 of 553 posts

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#61
post #14

If Bloomberg succeeds in buying the election, we will never have another president who isn’t a billionaire again. This is a far greater, long term threat to American democracy than anything posed by the Trump administration’s lawlessness.

Donald Trump spent less money on the election than Hillary Clinton maybe a counter example that people don't like

Yes, she outspent him 2:1: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidentia...

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#62
post #4

I don't even.. wow.. Talk about buying the election. Are anyone going to be fooled by this? Edit: does facebook and twitter require that you disclose any payments you get for posting?

We are seeing both parties run Populist demagogues. Yes people are getting fooled real bad. The decline of democracy is here.

The democratic party is not yet running anyone; the two major party members running are Biden and Klobuchar who are neither populist nor demagogues; it's unlikely Bloomberg is the preferred choice of anyone there; Bloomberg is not populist (and I would also argue against demagogue); and Sanders, who might reasonably be called populist (but also not a demagogue) is also far from the DNC's preferred choice, maybe even below Bloomberg.

But sure, "both."

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#63
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People got fooled by Trump. Anything can happen.

I mean I didn't like any of the alternatives either. There's only two teams and I don't like them. What do I do?

This is my problem exactly. All this money, all these issues, and we're stuck with these clowns? Whatever happened to statesmen and women? Nope, we're stuck with politicians that act like pro wrestlers. We don't need to overthrow the government. We just need to overthrow the parties.

I had such high hopes for humanity with the emergence of the internet. With the all the world's knowledge at our fingertips, including detailed information about political fundraising, voting records, etc., it would be SO EASY to find and elect the "right" people.

I truly long for thoughtful discussions about real issues. I'm still holding out a little hope for the next great awakening.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#64
post #4

I don't even.. wow.. Talk about buying the election. Are anyone going to be fooled by this? Edit: does facebook and twitter require that you disclose any payments you get for posting?

Was Hillary Clinton "buying the election" when she outspent Donald Trump roughly 2:1? Or is it only "buying the election" when it's a candidate you dislike? My vote isn't for sale and I assume that's true for other Americans. If I thought otherwise, I'd have a hard time convincing myself that democracies can work.

I'd say yes to both, but I'm not from the US so I have no horse in this race

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#65

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am ok with Bloomberg spending some of his money. Granted, 300MM to him like approximately $20 to me, but still.. Do not misunderstand me. His attempt to simply buy an election is.. annoying, if not unseemly. That said, I am perfectly fine with him finally spending at least some of his vast fortune instead of hoarding it like a dragon. Hell, he wants to pay me $2500? I will pocket…

At the very least, a billionaire is cashing out a decent chunk of his assets and the money is going to other people. I personally think he's wasting his money, but I guess it's helping the economy?

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#66
He's just protecting his fortune against Bernie. Spend a billion, keep the remaining 39. Good deal. He will lose even if he does get nominated, and he's OK with that. This is a page directly from Trump's playbook: Trump routinely puts himself into situations where there are several ways for him to win and no way to really lose.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#67
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the vast majority of folks who voted for Trump felt that they received what they were expecting to receive. I think most who voted that way the first go around will likely vote for him again should they return to the polls.

And what, exactly, were they expecting to receive?

I believe most wanted a bull in a china shop to gore the sacred cows of the media elite, policy wonks, and "experts".

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#69
post #28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People got fooled by Trump. Anything can happen.

Disclaimer; I am in no way supportive of Trump or most of his policies. However as an outsider (I'm not American), he actually seemed more on message and resonated more with his base than his opponent in 2016 so when Hillary became the nominee for the Democratic party I actually bet 100 NOK with my co-worker that Trump would win.

His message was definitely, in many ways, way more and more effectively populist than Hillary's. His wall's a great example: it's far-right from some perspectives, but from others it's what they've been speculating aloud (amongst themselves, with no public stage) as a "common-sense" solution for decades (source: been around plenty of that, for... decades). It's the definition of populism. Ditto trade issues. There's a lot of perception among voters that the average citizen got screwed by things like MFN (or whatever they renamed it to) status for China and a variety of other trade agreements and, go figure, a lot of that sentiment crosses party lines. His hard talk about those agreements and China was, again, blue-collar as hell and exactly what you could have heard anywhere in middle America (or just outside a big city) for many years before the election, but had practically no voice in either viable political party. His message was, to borrow one of his favorite words, kinda perfect.

Nb I'm not using populism as a negative term here, and do not consider something automatically bad because it's populist.

Now, to defend describing his supporters as having been "fooled", I'd say the strongest evidence for that would be that some of his major proposals weren't ever really proposals, and still haven't meaningful become proposals (his "most perfect" or whatever health care reform comes immediately to mind—what exactly was that supposed to be? Very good, the best, whatever it was.) and that his support many of these positions is very probably opportunistic and disingenuous.

To tack back the other way, I personally would accept someone I knew or suspected to be opportunistically, rather than genuinely, supporting my interests if I believed they were likely to meaningfully advance them regardless, so my support of such a person wouldn't necessarily be evidence that I'd been "fooled". Probably some were (I mean, there've been no shortage of interviews with Trump voters all over the media in the last 3 years, and clearly some were not, uh, going in with both eyes open) but who knows how many knew he was full of shit (I mean it's kinda his thing? What he was famous for everywhere, including right-wing radio, before he became a Republican politician?) but thought he'd effectively advance their interests anyway. Possibly a lot.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#70
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he was Russian, he wouldn't be running for president.

True enough they already have their guy in the Whitehouse!

trump and putin aren't even on good terms and he is assisting ukraine. turn off cnn, bud.
Post reply on HN